Ke'Shawn Vaughn (5) waits with other players for a drill to start during Vanderbilt's first football practice of preseason camp
Friday Aug. 3, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn.
Larry McCormack / The Tennessean

That occurred to 43-year-old defensive coordinator Jason Tarver when he started carrying a football through the hallways of Vanderbilt’s team complex like Darnell Jefferson, the fumble-plagued running back in the film.

“The Program?” Williams said. “Oh, I guess that was the clip that (Tarver) showed us.”

Tarver, wanting to emphasize a hunger for getting the football through turnovers, carries a ball with him throughout the day. He wants his defenders to want it, seek it and value it.

When he enters a defensive meeting room, he demands their eyes be glued to the ball. He’ll toss it at players during presentations. And sometimes he’ll even drop it on the floor to mimic a fumble, similar to the clip in the movie when Jefferson dives at his professor’s feet during a class to retrieve the ball.

“During meetings (Tarver) will throw it down to see who gets it,” safety LaDarius Wiley said. “We do whatever it takes to get the ball.”

‘Karate Kid’ also used by Jason Tarver

Tarver isn’t the first coach to make a point to his players with that scene from “The Program,” which he reluctantly calls a “classic” football movie. But it’s an old teaching tactic for the former NFL coach. During spring practice, he also used a meme from “The Karate Kid” on a day when he was teaching a different tackling technique.

After taking over one of the nation’s worst turnover-causing defenses, he’ll do whatever works. The Commodores forced only nine turnovers last season. Among 129 FBS teams, only Rice forced fewer.

“The No. 1 thing we want is the ball. There is only one on the field at a time,” Tarver said. “We want that ball. Everything we do defensively is designed to get the football. You should do everything you can to track it, to chase it, to pull it out, to get it and give it back to (Vanderbilt’s) offense.”

Vanderbilt’s No. 1 priority on offense, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig said, also is turnovers. However, the Commodores ranked third in the SEC and 19th nationally in fewest giveaways last season.

The problem clearly was on defense, where Vanderbilt had seven interceptions and only two fumble recoveries, the fewest in FBS.

Vanderbilt practicing awkward interceptions

Tarver has introduced intense drills in preseason practice to stimulate takeaways, but virtually every defense in college football does that. He hopes the defense’s mentality changes along with its practice.

The defensive backs took Tarver’s call for turnovers seriously. They spent this summer working on catching the ball in awkward body positions to mimic intercepting passes while defending wide receivers who are the intended targets.

“At the end of the day the ball is not coming to me,” Williams said. “So we have been putting ourselves in different positions to get balls, coming in at different angles, coming in at different positions to get picks.

“From our practice habits to raking the ball out every single play, practice makes good habits, and we’ll see it on the field.”

Reach Adam Sparks at asparks@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.